"Pastor, my husband and I have been sensing a need for more prayer at church. Could we start a prayer ministry?" Only God new what would come of that small step of faith for this church known today simply as Hosanna!.
At the time this Lutheran church in Lakeville had 700 people. The first week Pat Moe and her husband were the only ones present for their Sunday evening time of prayer. But they invited more people and attendance grew. "We learned to pray for each other and God did miracles," Pat reports. But then over the months the group reached an important turning point, "Let's pray for the church and not just ourselves," they decided. The prayer effort continued to grow and mature for years. At another point "the Matthew 25 passage about taking care of the lost, lonely and hurting kept coming to mind," Pat says. So they asked permission to run an event designed to serve the poorest families in the community, which they launched at no cost to the church -- another miracle of God's provision.
Fast forward nine years from that one-time dinner to Tuesday of this week. At 7:00 a.m., the church-sponsored Community Clothes Closet doors opened as they do each Tuesday. All day long people from both church and community brought car seats, clothing, furniture, food, and children's toys. By afternoon the gym was packed with "gently used" clothing and household items.
Then at 5:00 dozens of people enjoyed a free dinner known as a New Friends Community Meal, followed by an opportunity for spiritual blessing, access to take anything they needed from the gym's 
temporary storehouse, and then opportunity to attend one of 16 different recovery groups. All kinds of services are offered along the way from blood pressure checks to complimentary haircuts and manicures, all donated by members of the church. Dozens more came to the groups who had not come for the dinner.
During 2007 the church was able to bless 1,745 families through more than 16,000 individual serving opportunities, and the effort is expanding further now in 2008. "It's what the church should be," says Pat Moe, now the church's full-time Pastor of Care Ministries. "God has a heart for poor people." Indeed this awareness is so widespread that social workers, public health nurses, refugee workers, hospital staff and school counselors all refer the community to the church. All this impact started as Pat invited others to build a culture of prayer at the church.
Warren Bird, Ph.D., is Research Director at Leadership Network, and co-author of 19 books on various aspects of church health and innovation.
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